Towards a new education agenda

18

March 2009 theTeacher

A good deal of healthy public debate revolves around what needs to be done to improve the quality of schooling in

South Africa. This is important, as few other initiatives have the poten-tial to be as pivotal to the transforma-tion of South African society as the systematic improvement of schools. In rekindling the debate I would like to revisit an old concept for enhanc-ing the educational experiences of children and young people in South Africa — the simple, yet powerful concept of the community school.

Any efforts to improve schools — especially many of the schools serving our townships and rural communities — must take into con-sideration the forces that shape the realities of schooling and influence the teaching and learning outcomes. Persistent poverty and inequality in our society affect the life experiences and chances of young people and their families, threaten the stability of communities and undermine their potential to participate as active citi-zens in the country’s growth.

We are aware of many of the prob-lems related to these socioeconomic conditions. They include, among oth-ers, ill-health, fragmentation of the family, poor school attendance and discipline problems, increased school drop out rate, psychosocial trauma and an increase in the number of orphans attending school.

Schools, on their own, are unlikely to deal effectively with these chal-lenges. What is needed is a broader, bolder and more integrated approach to school improvement. This will reconnect the school to its commu-nity and other stakeholders in mul-tiple initiatives aimed at engaging the challenges that confront learners and their families, while strengthen-ing the instructional (teaching and learning) core.

A broader approach to school improvement places the school at the centre and focuses on addressing the internal and external challenges to the core functions of teaching and learn-ing. The community school is con-nected to and works with parents and other education stakeholders to iden-tify the challenges and to design and implement interventions to address them. These stakeholder groups can include the local clinic, businesses, religious organisations, libraries, civic groups and universities.

Of course, the role of the state — at provincial and national levels — is crucial to support and implement such an approach. It should involve collaboration at the intra- and inter-ministerial levels where networked structures within the education department are connected to other ministries, such as health and social services, to deliver more coordinated services to schools and the communi-ties they serve.

The state plays a key role in creat-

ing an enabling environment that allows the community school to be established. Through a consulta-tive process, it can develop policy frameworks that facilitate cross-sector collaboration. It should also provide resources to assist the community school to achieve its improvement goals.

Schools can collaborate with one or more of the stakeholder groups to develop projects that range from giving direct support to learners and teachers, such as an after-school mathematics enrichment programme run by a university or NGO, to work-ing with parents and the local clinic to provide health services to learners.

It is important for these projects to be clearly identified, grounded in the real context of the school and com-munity and aligned to the improve-ment goals of the school. In addition, the projects should not be regarded as “add-ons”, hovering on the periph-ery of schooling. Instead, they should be integrated into the school’s improvement strategy — that coher-ent set of actions that connects the school’s organisational structures, policies, resources and culture to the changes that need to be made.

Our public schools, especially those serving townships and rural commu-nities, have the potential to become thriving community schools. There are a number of factors that favour this. First, schools, as with religious and other civic organisations, are sites of social cohesion in many com-munities. They bring young peo-ple, parents and other stakeholders together around the educational enterprise. Schools are also shared public spaces that are used by the community for purposes other than education, such as church serv-ices and community meetings and events. The institutional connections that schools have to these groups

hold significant potential for future collaboration.

Another factor that supports the community school is that children and older learners spend much of their waking time in school. In this setting they become more acces-sible to external groups, which can provide them and their families with support and services, such as after-school activities, tutoring pro-grammes, health projects and parent workshops and activities.

Finally, schools have access to offi-cials from across the public service spectrum (such as education, health and social services) that should form part of a comprehensive school improvement strategy involving mul-tiple sectors of society.

While there are often negative public perceptions about the state of schooling in the country, any approach to create the community school should be asset-based and tap into the hopes and aspirations, as well as the creativity and energy, of the school and community.

Implementing community schools can have a number of benefits for society. Most importantly, it focuses on educating the whole child. This not only involves direct efforts to improve teaching and learning, such

as enhancing the qualifications and skills of teachers, but also on those issues that affect learners’ quality of life and wellbeing. It means that sport and cultural activities, nutrition, health, counselling and social sup-port must be built into the functions of schools with clear connections being made between a healthy mind, healthy body and healthy community.

The community school also has a strong developmental orientation. Schools can be centres that serve broader community needs, such as providing literacy and skills training for unemployed parents and other community members. They can facilitate projects that lead to income generation for parents. School-based micro enterprises that draw on the strengths and expertise of the com-munity, such as a carpentry shop, a school uniform and clothes manu-facturer and an organic vegetable and herb gardening project, help to build an entrepreneurial base in the community that can become self-sus-taining over time.

Another benefit of the community school is that it has much to contrib-ute in terms of knowledge genera-tion aimed at solving local problems. This knowledge is context-specific and is generated through interac-tive discussions between school leaders and teachers, community members, learners and other stake-holder groups. These interactions are empowering because they allow the community “voice” to emerge when formulating solutions to some of the challenges that confront the community.

Community schools help learners develop global competencies by not only teaching the basic skills of read-ing, writing and mathematics (a core area of school improvement), but also by encouraging creative think-ing and problem-solving through tackling local problems.

When learners are engaged in an environmental project that involves the design of a clean and safe water reticulation and sanitation system, or when they study the business model of a local micro enterprise, they are exposed to applied skills and profes-sional forms of knowledge that are essential to the global world of work.

Efforts to improve the functions of schools in isolation from the broader social transformation of society will, at best, yield short-term, limited results. It is important therefore that we give thoughtful consideration to some of the options being put on the table. The challenges we face as we seek to move the education system in a north-easterly direction on the improvement graph are complex and multifaceted and we should be care-ful not to adopt a “one-size-fits-all” or an “anything goes” approach to dealing with them. Instead we need flexible strategies that are grounded in theory and research and draw on best practices. We also need an ena-bling policy and resource environ-ment in which to do this work.

It is time for us to revisit the old notion of the community school and rethink the role of the school and of leadership at the school, district and national levels. The community school was the defining idea of “Peo-ples’ Education”, which contained the blueprint for an alternative edu-cation system in South Africa that would help learners develop critical thinking skills and prepare them for full participation in the social, eco-nomic, political and cultural spheres of the country.

Schools remain one of the few intact social institutions in many of South Africa’s urban and rural communities and their potential to improve learning and make sig-nificant contributions to community improvement remains untapped. What is needed is the collective will of all stakeholders — from govern-ment ministries to communities and schools — to rekindle the powerful notion of schools that are integrated into a broad network of support for learners and their families. This will breathe new life into the African adage: “… it takes a whole village to raise a child …”

Allistair Witten is the interim direc-tor of the Principals’ Center at the Harvard Graduate School of Edu-cation, where he is completing his doctorate in school leadership. He is a former school principal from Lavender Hill in Cape Town and writes in his personal capacity

Rethink the role of the community school, writes Al Witten

Comment

“What is needed is a broader, bolder and more integrated approach to school improvement that reconnects the school to its community and other stakeholders in multiple initiatives”

Persistent poverty and inequality in our society affect the life experiences and chances of young people and their families, threaten the stability of communities and undermine their potential to participate as active citizens in the country’s growth. Photos: David Harrison and Sapa